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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. cap — a lid
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. wound — an injury
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. cap — of ice
  10. wound — an injury
  11. tube — in a tire
  12. last — final
  13. last — to go on
  14. snap — to click
  15. cap — a hat
  16. scale — in music
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. scale — size or range
  20. sharp — clever
  21. tube — the underground
  22. tube — a container
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. last — finally

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com